Why A Consistent Morning Routine Is So Powerful In Sobriety

As someone who spends loads of time on Pinterest, you would think that the entire blogosphere is waking up at 5 AM and drinking a glass of hot lemon water before reciting their mantras. Morning routines are the “it” thing in health and wellness right now, but it’s honestly not without reason.

Books like The Miracle Morning and Make Your Bed show readers how creating a structured and energizing morning routine can have an enormous impact on the rest of your day. In the book Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss, a recurring trend among all the experts he interviews is a set morning routine that mentally and physically prepares them for the day ahead.

Intuitively, this makes a lot of sense. Waking up and hitting the snooze button a million times before rolling out of bed at the last minute and scrambling to get around in a frantic rush is a horrible way to start your day and yet many of us routinely do.

The Importance of Routines in Sobriety

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of what a good morning routine looks like, let’s look at why people in sobriety benefit from routines.

Tips for creating a morning routine in sobriety

1. You need structure.

For the vast majority of us, early sobriety is a confusing, frustrating time. Chances are your life has largely consisted of trying fight past the hangover in the morning enough to function, followed by work, and then more drinking and shenanigans. Repeat.

You’re going to have to consciously schedule your day in ways that promote healthier habits. It will keep you busy, focused on making positive changes, and help you heal from the damage alcohol has done on your mental and physical well-being.

Our brains love patterns and habits and so far, your patterns and habits of been pretty horrible. A thoughtful routine geared towards health is how you start to change all that.

2. You need new habits.

To piggyback off the previous section, routines help you adopt new habits which you (we) DESPERATELY need. Without clear routines, we jeopardize our ability to make these new habits stick and when we stop actively working towards creating structure and positive habits in our life, we risk a relapse.

Routines allow you to create a new normal, and by slowly integrating new habits into your daily routine, especially your mornings, you’re building a foundation for long-term change. And honestly, isn’t that the goal?

3. Routines help you stay busy

One of the biggest killers of sobriety is excessive downtime. The more opportunity you give your mind to idly ruminate, the likelier you are to start listening to that inner voice that tells you to have a drink and live a little.

If your life revolved around hanging with your drinking buddies, sobriety can feel a bit lonely. You need to actively decide how you’re going to fill your day now that you’re not getting wasted. It also adds much-needed stability to your life and helps you gain a sense of achievement.

Oh, you woke up and made breakfast every day this week? Look at you kicking ass!

Why Morning Routines Are Especially Key In Sobriety

Mornings set the tone for your entire day, so it is critically important that you establish a routine that is going to energize you and get you in the right mindset to tackle whatever it is you got going on.

The Snooze Button Is THE WORST

Listen, I totally get it. I am a reformed snooze button junkie. I used to hit that thing five or six times every morning and had to set my alarm about 45 minutes ahead of my scheduled wake-up time as a way to protect myself from myself.

Sleep inertia is that groggy “don’t make me do this” feeling you get when you wake up in the morning. It lasts anywhere from 15-30 minutes. However, if you wake up too early in a sleep cycle or in the middle of a deep sleep cycle, that grogginess can last between two to four hours. That’s your entire morning shot to shit.

Guess what happens to your body when you hit snooze. That’s right. It thinks you’re going back to sleep and so hormones get released to help you drift off into a blissfully deep rest. This is why when your alarm goes off again in ten or fifteen minutes, you can barely remember your name.

Stop doing that to yourself.

Components of a Good Morning Routine

A solid morning routine needs to get your mind and body ready for the day. There a bazillion articles on the web with great (or weird) ideas on what your morning routine should have in it. For our purposes, I’m going to focus on key areas where you’ll get more bang for your buck. Of course, you can add to and personalize this to your heart’s content.

Here we go.

Six things you should add to your morning routine

1. Give yourself at least an hour before you need to be anywhere.

That means setting a consistent bedtime that allows you to get the proper amount of sleep. YOU WILL BE FINE. (I can hear you complaining about getting up an hour earlier from here).

2. Move Your Body

It is so important to get the juices flowing in the morning (is that gross to say?). Getting your heart rate up is the perfect way to wake up your brain and body while eliminating all that grogginess.

If fitness is something you’re trying to get into, working out in the morning is the BEST way to ensure that it gets done. Waiting until later in the day means setting yourself up for excuses to not do it. Something will come up, you’ll be too tired, whatever the case may be.

Exercise is critical in sobriety. It is a natural way to give your brain a much-needed dopamine boost and helps fight depression and anxiety. Plus, if you’ve been drinking heavily in the past, chances are your physical health has been neglected. Exercise will help.

Am I suggesting you go run a 5K every morning? I mean, you can if you want to. When I say move your body, it can be something as simple as completing a 10-minute YouTube workout in whatever fitness genre you prefer.

By adding exercise to your routine every morning, you’re laying the groundwork for establishing a fitness habit which is important for everyone, but especially those in sobriety.

3. Meditate or practice some form of mindfulness

You all know I’m a big fan of meditation and the benefits it has particularly for people in sobriety. Honestly, though, everyone needs a meditation or mindfulness practice added to their morning routine and here’s why:

It helps you start your day on a focused, clear-headed, calm note.

Much like exercise, meditating in the morning means you’ve got it done. One less thing to forget to do later on.

It’s an easier time to focus. When you’ve had a long day and a million things to think about, meditation can be a bit trickier, especially if you’re a newb to the practice.

It’s an excellent tool for battling anxiety and depression.

You don’t have to sit in meditation for a long period of time to reap the benefits. Ten mindful minutes can help set the tone for the rest of your day in profoundly impactful ways. Do whatever practice works for you. You can use apps, guided meditations, timers, or even use the time for prayer. All of it is a form of mindfulness.

Meditation helps to heal a lot of the damage we’ve done to our brain and body through excessive drinking. It’s going to help you manage anxiety and depression, become more focused, and restore cognitive functions. You’ll also get the added benefit of creating new neural pathways which is critical in forming new habits and thought patterns.

4. Drink an enormous amount of water.

Assuming you went to bed at a reasonable hour because, eh hem, see point #1, you’ve got about eight hours of dehydration to combat. Drink as much water as you can first thing in the morning. It makes doing all this other stuff infinitely easier.

5. Do some self-improvement work

Choose whatever works best for you. Some people like to do stream-of-consciousness writing in a journal, others do more traditional journaling. Read a book that is going to help you improve some aspect of your life. Give yourself some space to do a bit of visualizing, if you’re into that.

The WHAT is not nearly as important as making sure you’re taking the time to do it. A lot of successful entrepreneurs talk about the power of having a motivational mantra that they focus on for a few minutes every morning. This is another tool for people in sobriety that can have a big impact.

Taking 10-15 minutes every morning to do something that helps you work on yourself is critically important, especially for those of us who are trying to rebuild a healthier life while working through some “stuff.”

I also think journaling has a lot of benefits for everyone, but especially those in recovery. Give yourself space to dump all your stuff on a page so that you can carry on with your day without bringing it with you. It’s incredibly liberating.

6. Eat breakfast

You need fuel. Eat something healthy so you don’t crash by 10 AM.

How Should You Organize Your Morning Routine?

It’s honestly up to you. The order you do things in and the percentage of time you devote to each component depends on your personal preferences and needs.

If you’re feeling particularly anxious or unsettled, maybe add more time to your exercise or meditation practice – whatever activity helps you manage that feeling.

Start with what works for you and experiment with the order until you find the right combination.

Some people recommend beginning the day with meditation. I’m too groggy for that, so I like to drink a bunch of water and brush my teeth first, followed by some stretching (that’s my exercise). Once I feel awake, I’m better able to meditate and read or write. Otherwise, I risk falling asleep on myself.

In the immortal words of the Isley Brothers, “it’s your thing. Do what you wanna do.”

What To Avoid In the Morning

Do NOT roll over and check your emails or social media first thing. You’re setting yourself up for all sorts of anxiety and hectic vibes. In fact, unless it’s to use a meditation app, don’t even touch your phone until you’ve gone through your routine.

Do not allow your brain to start running through your “to do” list or get swept up in daydreams about this or that. When I first got sober, I used to devote a lot of “zoning out” time in the morning to replaying some of my greatest, most shameful drunk hits in my brain. Don’t do that.

The point of your morning routine is to create a sense of calm and alertness for your day AND to help you form better habits for your life. If it doesn’t contribute to either goal, don’t even consider giving it attention in the morning.

How to create your morning routine

Helpful Tips For Creating Your Morning Routine In Early Sobriety

You need a routine and you need to set yourself up for success. Sometimes one can negatively impact the other. If you’re anything like me, once you get it in your head to do something, you Google the living daylights out of it and create a plan that you’re definitely not ready for.

What ends up happening?

You quit on your new routine, habit, or plan.

I don’t want that for you. It’s too important. So here’s what I suggest.

1. Start small. If you’re not ready for an entire hour-long morning routine, begin with thirty minutes (I wouldn’t do any less than that). Gradually increase the time. Do thirty minutes this week, forty-five next week, and so on until you’ve got your hour.

2. Make sure you’re choosing things you actually enjoy doing. If you hate yoga, don’t do yoga in the morning. Even if you’re just dancing around to music – so long as you’re getting your heart rate up, you’re doing something that counts as exercise.

3. Make sleep a priority. The biggest killer of morning routines is an inconsistent sleep schedule. Make your bedtime a non-negotiable (to the greatest extent possible). Also, be reasonable. If you’ve been getting up at 8 AM, setting the alarm for 5 AM starting tomorrow is going to shock your system. Pick a realistic time and work on moving it back progressively (if that’s what you want to do).

4. Speaking of non-negotiables…for many folks in early sobriety, insomnia makes quality sleep nearly impossible. If you’ve spent several hours tossing and turning, you may find your morning routine hard to manage. Commit to at least two non-negotiables that you will do every morning no matter what. Is it meditation and some exercise? Fantastic. Journaling and exercise? Beauty. Until you get your sleep sorted, this is a great alternative.

Give Yourself (And Your Morning Routine) Time

As with all new things, morning routines take some getting used to. Don’t give up on it. Experiment with what works and commit to doing it every day, INCLUDING the weekends. (Yes, you heard me.)

Consistency is the key to making anything work, as people in sobriety especially know. Developing a morning routine is going to add some much-needed structure to your life and help keep you on the path to recovery, health, and wellness.

Start tomorrow!

Want some more insight? Check out Tim Ferriss talk about creating morning routines in the video below.